Managing Senior Professional Performance

What it does

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) are issuing a final rule to strengthen the performance appraisal of senior-level (SL) and scientific or professional (ST) employees, collectively referred to as "senior professionals." This final rule establishes a new subpart dedicated exclusively to senior professional performance appraisal that aligns more closely with Senior Executive Service (SES) performance appraisal regulations. The rule also eliminates senior professional appraisal programs, removes the prohibition of a standardized distribution of performance rating levels, and enhances oversight of the appraisal process.

The Personnel Management Office's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

8 parts of Title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

5 CFR 351, 5 CFR 430, 5 CFR 451, 5 CFR 534, 5 CFR 537, 5 CFR 630, 5 CFR 894, 5 CFR 1330

Compared with

The Personnel Management Office has published 29 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 14 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

Before this

1 earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 0348-AB92, 3206-AO88 since Jan. 1, 2025.

• Feb. 24, 2026 Notice of proposed rulemaking. Managing Senior Professional Performance

What happens next and when

Effective November 18, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket OPM-2025-0011 on Regulations.gov
• Title 5 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register